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OOISTOISE 



BIOaRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



WILLIAM PENK. 




PHILADELPHIA : 
FOR SALE AT FRIENDS' BOOK-STORE, 

No. 304 ARCH STREET, 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 



OF 



THE AUTHOR. 



THE sound Christian views so ably set forth in 
" No Cross, No Crown/' have rarely been better 
illustrated than by the full dedication of heart and 
simple obedience to manifested duty which were con- 
spicuous in the eventful life of its author. In issuing, 
therefore, a new edition of this excellent work, it is 
believed that a short biography of William Penn will 
give an added interest to its perusal. 

He was the son of William Penn, who, trained to 
nautical life, had by his genius and courage risen 
rapidly in the navy, until at the age of twenty-nine he 
became ^^ Vice- Admiral of the Straits.^^ From the ac- 
count of his life and public career, given by Granville 
Penn, a descendant, he appears to have been a man 
who made self-interest a leading principle of conduct, 
but who, while eagerly coveting wealth and honor, was 
never accused of being corrupt as a public servant. 
His son William was born in 1644, and resided with 
his mother at W^anstead, in Essex, while his father was 
absent with the fleet over which he had command. 

Owing to information received by Cromwell through 
some of the spies ke})t by him in attendance upon 
the exiled Charles and his court, that, notwith- 
standing he had sanctioned the promotion of Admi- 
ral Penn, and largely rewarded him by an estate in 
Ireland, for some losses he had sustained there, he 

3 



4 WILLIAM PENN. 

was secretly making overtures to bring the squadron 
he commanded into the service of the Koyalists, he lost 
favor with the Protector. On his return from an un- 
successful ex^iedition against the Spanish West India 
Islands, he was deprived of his command and thrown 
into prison, whence Cromwell generously liberated him 
at his own huml)le petition. He then took his family 
over to Ireland, where he continued to reside for some 
years, on the estate which Cromwell had had bestowed 
upon him, and which was near Cork. 

In a manuscript written by Thomas Harvey, re- 
citing an account given to him by William Penn, 
of some of the circumstances of his early life, and 
which was first published in '"' The Penns and Pen- 
ingtons," by M. Webb, it is stated, ^^ That while he was 
but a child living at Cork with his father, Thomas 
Loe came thither. When it was rumored a Quaker 
was come from England, his father proj^osed to some 
others to be like the noble Bereans, and hear him 
before they judged him. He accordingly sent to 
Thomas Loe to come to his house ; where he had a 
meeting in the family. Though William was very 
young, he observed what effect T. Loe's preaching had 
on the liearers. A black servant of his father could 
not restrain himself from weeping aloud ; and little 
William looking on his father, saw the tears running 
down his cheeks also. He then thought within him- 
self, ' What if they would all be Quakers !' " This 
0})portunity he never quite forgot ; the remembrance 
of it still recurring at times. William Penn was then 
about eleven years of age, and was being educated by a 
private tutor. 

On the retirement of Richard Cromwell from the 



WILLIAM PENN. O 

position for which he had been appointed by his father, 
Admiral Penn declared for Charles Stuart, and lost no 
time in going over to the Continent to pay court to him 
whom he had no doubt would soon be recalled to the 
throne. Charles employed him in secret service, and 
rewarded him by the honors of knighthood, and by 
becoming his debtor for one hundred pounds. 

When a little over fifteen years of age, William 
Penn entered as a " gentleman commoner," at Oxford, 
where he remained three years, distinguishing himself 
as a hard and successful student. After the Restora- 
tion, the Court set to work to remodel the University, 
by displacing those who held Puritanical opinions, or 
who had found favor during the Commonwealth, and 
installing others, friendly to the re-established church 
and the lax moral principles then prevailing. Dr. 
Owen, conspicuous as a scholar and a strict religionist, 
was ejected to make room for a royalist partisan, and 
the students became divided into parties, applauding or 
denouncino; the chano;es made. 

There is reason to believe, from observations made by 
William Penn himself, that tliroughout his youth he was 
repeatedly visited by the Day -Spring from on high, con- 
victing him of that which was evil in his ways, and 
bringing him into serious thoughtfulness. While at 
college, his associates appear to have been those of a re- 
ligious cast of character like himself, and wdio, with him, 
were greatly influenced by the teaching and advice of 
Dr. Owen. It so happened that, while much controversy 
was going on among the scholars relative to religious 
opinions and practices, Thomas Loe came to Oxford, 
and held several meetings. To these meetings William 
Penn and his associates went, and a deep impression was 



6 WILLIAM PENN. 

made upon their minds by the powerful preaching of this 
devoted servant of Christ. They declined being present 
at what were now the regular " services '' of the college, 
and did not refrain from speaking depreciatingly of 
what they designated as the "Popish doctrines and 
usages^' re-introduced among them. For this they 
Avere lectured and fined. With the ardor and indis- 
cretion of youth, this supposed indignity was highly 
resented by them. They not only held private meet- 
ings for worship and religious exhortation and prayer, 
but some of them refused to wear the student's gown 
and cap, and in some instances tore them off of those 
they met. How far William Penn was implicated in 
the latter wrong-doing is not known ; but his positive 
refusal to wear the usual garb, his bold denunciation 
of the doctrine and practices he believed to be wrong, 
and his courageous defence of the gospel truths he had 
heard from Thomas Loe, brought upon him the enmity 
of the Masters in power, and he was expelled the 
University. 

Admiral Penn, who had set his heart upon prepar- 
ing his son for realizing to the full the ambitious 
hopes and aims entertained by himself for his family, 
appears to have been little qualified to understand his 
son's character, or to rightly estimate the principles 
that actuated him. His pride was mortified, and, as 
he thought, his promising schemes were blasted. He 
received William with anger, and for a time would 
hardly deign to speak to him. Accustomed to com- 
mand, and to be obeyed without question, he ordered 
him to give up his newly-formed views of religious 
duty, and to hold no further intercourse with those 
who had shared in his rebellious opinions and course. 



WILLIAM PENN^. 7 

Enraged on finding that his authority, though seconded 
by the filial affection of his child, was powerless for re- 
moving his religious convictions, he resorted to the use 
of his cane, followed by solitary confinement in his 
room, and then banishment from the family. 

It was not long, however, before his good sense con- 
vinced him that the object he had in view was not to 
be obtained by severity. He resolved to change his 
mode of attack, and try if what could not be gained by 
force might not be brought about by the seductions 
of a life of gayety and pleasure. Learning that a 
number of young men, sons of persons considered to be 
of high families, were about to go on to the Continent 
and spend some time in study and travelling, he de- 
cided to send William with them. Accordingly, fur- 
nished with letters that would introduce him into Avhat 
the world considered the best society, he went to Paris; 
and, fascinated by the courtly and gay scenes of the 
company into which he found himself welcomed as an 
admired guest, he soon caught the worldly spirit 
that presided over their festivities, and his serious, 
Quaker-like impressions appeared to pass away^ like 
the morning dew before the burning rays of the sun. 
He did not, however, allow pleasure to wean him from 
study. He went to Saumur, and placing himself 
under the tuition of the learned Moses Amyrault, 
applied himself to the study of the language and 
literature of the country, embracing the j^hilosophic 
basis of divinity. Travelling into Italy, he made 
himself acquainted with its language, and gratified 
his taste for the works of the masters in art. 

On the breaking out of the war with the Dutch, 
the Admiral called his son William home, where he 



8 WILLIAM PENN. 

arrived after an absence of two years. All trace of 
the religious seriousness and conscientious restraint that 
had marked his conduct and manner when he left was 
gone, and his father was delighted to find his son 
wearing the carriage and displaying the accomplish- 
ments of a self-possessed man of the world. He was 
at once introduced at Court, and had the opportunity 
to become acquainted with many who stood high in the 
brilliant but profligate society that filled the saloons of 
Whitehall. 

William Penn now entered Lincoln's Inn as a 
student of law, and in 1665, when twenty-one years 
of age, there seemed every probability of his making 
an accomplished courtier, and a successful competitor 
for the honors of this world. Few could enter life 
with more flattering and apparently better-grounded 
prospects of attaining to all that would gratify a mind 
with strong intellectual powers, and naturally ambitious 
of preferment. His manly form, blooming with health, 
betokened physical strength and endurance. His dis- 
position, though lively and active, was marked by 
docility and sweetness. He possessed ready wit, and 
his good mental abilities had been well developed and 
trained by careful culture, and strengthened by exten- 
sive and profound literary attainments. Men high in 
power and place smiled upon him. His father enjoyed 
close intimacy with the Duke of York, heir pre- 
sumptive to the crown, and eagerly sought to secure 
for his son the glory and riches of the world, which 
courted his acceptance. 

The Admiral having been appointed by the Duke 
of York to accompany him in command of the fleet, 
took William as one of his staif ; but after a short 



WILLIAM PENN. 9 

absence the latter was sent home with a dispatch to 
the King. The plague was now spreading in London, 
and soon the whole aspect of the city was sadly changed. 
The awful scenes of death that were daily occurring, 
and struck the stoutest hearts with dismay, brought to 
the sensitive mind of the gay young man conviction 
of the uncertainty of life, and warning of the necessity 
to prepare for its sudden termination. The Holy 
Spirit again broke up his false rest, showed him the 
emptiness of all worldly grandeur, and wooed him to 
follow Christ Jesus in the refreneration. 

o 

After a cruise of about two months, his father 
returned, flushed with success in the sanguinary con- 
test in which he had been engaged. He found Wil- 
liam again serious, and indisposed to continue the 
course upon which, but a short time before, he had 
exultantly entered. The increased honors and emolu- 
ments heaped on the victorious sailor by the royal 
brothers, made him still more fearful lest the foolish 
whimsies, as he thought them, of his son, would yet 
disappoint his hopes of the hereditary honors that 
might be settled upon him. Large accession to his 
Irish estate, derived from royal bounty as a reward for 
the service rendered, made it necessary that some one 
should look after his interest there ; and having expe- 
rienced the good effect, as he considered it, of placing 
his son within the dazzling circle of gay and fashiona- 
ble life, he hurried him across the Channel, with letters 
of Introduction to the Duke of Ormond, then Lord 
Deputy of Ireland. 

William found the vice-regal Court com})aratIvely 
free from the dissipation and loose morals of that which 
surrounded Charles II., and he soon seemed to enter 



10 WILLIAM PENN. 

heartily into the enjoyment it aiforcled. He joined an 
expedition sent, nnder the command of Lord Airan, to 
qnell an insnrrection that broke ont among the gar- 
rison at Carrickfergus, and for a Avhile was so excited 
by the spirit and enterprise attending active military 
life, that he became anxious to adopt it as a profession. 
But his father, when consulted on the subject, decidedly 
objected, and it was given up. 

But He who watches over the workmanship of his 
hand, and seeks to save that which is lost, was not 
leaving William Penn to wander in the paths of folly, 
without the reproofs of instruction, and in mercy, by 
his witness in the heart, inclining him to accept those 
reproofs as the way to life ; and it was not long before 
he was brought to a stand, and made to feel that he 
must then make his election between the life of a votary 
of this world and that of a self-denying disciple of a 
crucified Saviour. 

Shangarry Castle, the newly-acquired estate of the 
Admiral, was near to Cork, and when not employed in 
bringing the place and the affairs connected with it 
into order, William was often in the town, where he 
had been well acquainted when a boy. Having one 
day, while there, gone into the shop of a woman Friend 
whom he had formerly known, to make a j^urchase, and 
finding she did not recognize him, he introduced him- 
self, and entered into conversation with her; recalling 
to her recollection the meeting held by Thomas Loe at 
his father's house. Upon her expressing surprise at 
his memory of the events, he replied, he thought he 
would never forget them, and that, if he knew where 
that Friend was, he would o;o to hear him a2:ain, thouoh 
it was a hundred miles off. She told him he need not 



WILLIAM PENN. 11 

go SO far, for that Friend was now in Cork, and was 
to have a meeting the next day. Curious again to liear 
one who had arrested his attention when a boy, and 
seriously impressed him by his ministry, when at Ox- 
ford, he went to the meeting ; and after a time Thomas 
Loe stood up with the expression, "There is a faith 
that overcomes the world, and there is a faith that is 
overcome by the world." It struck deep into the heart 
of William Penn, who was then made to feel keenly 
that he had l^een long striving against or slighting his 
known duty to his Maker, and allowing the world to 
overcome the drawing of his heavenly Father's love, 
to bring him out from the thraldom of sin ; and as the 
preacher with fervid eloquence dwelt on the fruits of 
such faith, he was thoroughly broken down, and wept 
much. After the meeting he went with Thomas Loe 
to a Friend's house, where they had a free conversation, 
and from that time he became a regular attender of the 
meetings of Friends. As the Light of Christ shone 
with more and more clearness upon his soul, he saw 
how grievously he had departed from the right way 
of the Lord, and was brought under deep repentance 
therefor. Convinced of the truth of the doctrines held 
by Friends, he heartily embraced them, and firmly 
resolved to live and die by them, whatever sacrifices it 
might cost him. 

Being at a meeting in Cork in 1667, he, with others, 
was arrested by officers who came to break the meeting 
up, and was sent to prison: thougli the Magistrate, who 
recognized him as the son of the lord of Shangarry 
Castle, offered to set him at liberty if he would give 
his word "to keep the peace," which he refused. 
From the prison he addressed a letter to the Earl of 



12 AV^ILLIAM PENN. 

Ossory, giving an account of the arrest and imprison- 
ment of himself and friends, showing their innocence, 
and pleading the liberty of conscience demanded by 
the precepts of the gospel. An order was immediately 
dispatched by the Earl for his release ; and as it was 
soon noised abroad that Admiral Penn's son had turned 
Quaker, the Earl wrote to his father, communicating 
the information. Startled and annoyed by the intelli- 
gence, the Admiral ordered William to come home 
immediately, which he did. Josiali Cole, a minister 
in the Society of Friends, met him at Bristol ; accom- 
panied him to London, and being deeply interested for 
his stability and preservation, went with him to his 
father's house. Fully as William had adopted the 
principles of Friends, and many as were the baptisms 
he had already passed through, he had not yet adopted 
the plain dress that distinguished them from others ; 
and his father observing this, and that his rapier still 
hung by his side, hoped that his friend the Earl had 
been wrongly informed ; and he treated him and his 
friend during the evening wdth ordinary courtesy, 
without alluding to the report that had reached him. 

Observing, on the next day, that William did not 
uncover his head when he came into* his presence, — in 
those days men generally wore their hats in the house, 
— and that he used thee and thou when addressing; 
him, he demanded an explanation. William frankly 
told him that, having l)een convinced of tlie truth of 
the religion of the Quakers, he was conscientiously 
scrupulous against taking off his hat as a token of re- 
spect, using the plural language, or compliments. An 
angry altercation on the part of the father, and deeply 
distressing on the part of the son, succeeded, and was 



WILLIAM pen:n^. 13 

more tlian once repeated. Finally, the former, finding 
tliat neitlier argument nor threats could shake the 
latter's firm conviction that to comply with his father's 
wishes would be to violate his duty to his Lord and 
Master, told him he might thee and thou whom lie 
pleased, and keep on his hat, except in the presence of 
the King, the Dnke of York, and himself; but to or 
before these he should not thee or thou, or stand cov- 
ered ; and the son, moved by his father's distress and 
his own filial affection, asked tinie for consideratiou 
before giving a decisive reply. This was reluctantly 
granted, though he was forbidden to see any Friend, 
and William retired, to pour out his soul in prayer for 
right direction and strength to follow it. At their 
next interview William told his father that he could 
not comply with his wishes without violating his duty 
to his God, and nmst therefore decline. Irritated at 
what he considered his son's obstinacy, and foolish 
determination to sacrifice the worldly honors soliciting 
his acceptance, for a mere whim, the Admiral up- 
braided him in no measured terms, and when con- 
vinced that he would not be changed, turned him out 
of doors, with the threat that he would disinherit him. 
Before leaving his home and family, William assured 
his father how deeply he was grieved; not so much 
because of his being driven from his paternal roof and 
brought to poverty, as because he incurred his dis- 
pleasure, and w^as thought by him to be an undutiful 
child. He then left the house, resigned to make the 
sacrifice required, and "choosing rather to suffer 
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the 
pleasures of sin for a season ; esteeming the reproach 
of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt ; 



14 WILLIAM PENN. 

for he had respect unto the recompense of reward/' 
Friends who knew the circumstances under which 
William Penn was placed, received him gladly; and 
his mother, who yearned over the son of her love, and 
greatly mourned the course pursued towards him, took 
means to have him supplied with money sufficient to 
obtain food and raiment, and so managed as to have 
an occasional interview with him. It was not long 
after, that, laying aside his rapier and all ornamentation 
of dress, he appeared in the plain garb of a Quaker. 

Some years after, when writing respecting the trials 
that befell him about this time, he speaks of ".the 
bitter mockings and scorn ings that fell upon me, the 
displeasure of my parents, the craelty and invective 
of the priests, the strangeness of all my companions, 
and what a sign and wonder they made of me ; but 
above all, that great cross of resisting and watching 
against my own vain affections and thoughts." 

As he was given up to endure the baptisms necessary 
for his purification and refinement, his Divine Master 
brought him up out of the horrible pit, set his feet 
upon Himself, the Rock of Ages, and made him a 
partaker of the powers of the world to come; and 
having thus prepared him for the work, bestowed on 
him a gift in the ministry of the gospel of life and sal- 
vation. He first came forth in this service in 1668, 
about two years after his convincement under the min- 
istry of Thomas Loe, and in the twenty-fourth year of 
his age. His uniformly consistent conduct, and care- 
ful maintenance of affectionate filial respect toward his 
exasperated parent, finally won upon him so far that 
he permitted him to take up his abode in his house . 
though it was long after he had been so li vhig, before 



WILLIAM PENN. 15 

he would have much intercourse with him. But when, 
sharing in the persecution which Friends were then 
suffering, his son was cast into prison, it was said he 
secretly used his influence to obtain his liberty. 

In 1668 Thomas Loe was called away from the 
church militant to enter upon his reward in the church 
triumphant. When on his death-bed, he said to Wil- 
liam Penn, who, with other Friends, was waiting on 
him, " Bear thy cross and stand faithful to God ; then 
He will give thee an everlasting crown of glory, that 
shall not be taken from thee. There is no other way 
wdiich shall prosper than that which the holy men of 
old walked in. God hath brought immortality to 
light, and life immortal is felt. Glory ! glory ! to 
Him, for He is worthy of it. His love overcomes my 
heart; nay, my cup runs over; glory be to His Name 
forever.'^ To George Whitehead he remarked, " The 
Lord is good to me ; this day He hath covered me 
with glory," and as life was leaving his body, he sang, 
" Glory, glory to Thee forever ! " and so sank to sleep 
in Jesus. 

In 1668 William Penn was imprisoned on account 
of one of his publications, " The Sandy Foundation 
Shaken." It resulted from himself and George White- 
head having been unfairly prevented from orally re- 
plying to a Calvinistic preacher who had assailed the 
doctrines of Friends. In this tract he was not so 
guarded in the language he used, but that he was mis- 
understood by many, and supposed to be unsound on 
the fundamental doctrines of the proper divinity and 
meritorious death and atonement of Christ. The 
publication attracted general attention, and gave deep 
offence to some of the Prelates, who either thought 



16 WILLIAM PENN. 

it beneath their dignity to enter into argument with a 
polemic so young, and as they might think, so un- 
skilled in divinity, or, being more in accordance with 
their practice and the spirit of the times, and more 
likely to silence their opponent, they applied to the 
Secretary of State, and induced him to issue a warrant 
for his arrest; which William Penn hearing of, went 
and voluntarily gave himself up, and was committed to 
the Tower. It was evident that William Penn had some 
bitter enemies, for a letter was picked up near where 
he had been standing when he surrendered himself, 
which contained matter of so treasonable a character, 
that Lord Arlington, the Secretary of State, on re- 
ceiving and reading it, w^ent immediately to the Tower 
and had an interview with him, in which he soon 
satisfied himself that Willaim Penn knew nothing of 
the note, and was innocent of any conspiracy. 

There had been no indictment, no trial, conviction, 
nor sentence passed upon the prisoner, and yet he was 
kept in solitary confinement for about eight months ; 
during which time most of his family and friends 
were forbidden access to him, and the '^ Bishop of 
London^' sent him word he should either make a 
public recantation or die in prison. But though thus 
closely immured as to his body, his spirit was free, and 
the word of the Lord was not bound. He prepared 
himself to weary out the malice of his enemies by 
patience and meekness, and to be resigned to lay down 
his life within the walls of the Tower, if the sacrifice 
was called for, rather than violate his conscience. 

To occupy his time profitably, and, as fixr as he had 
ability, promote the cause of truth and righteousness, 
he employed his pen ; and his thoughts, probably 



WILLIAM pen:n-. 17 

taking their direction and coloring from the afflictive 
circumstances under which he and many other mem- 
bers of the Society to which he was joined were then 
placed, he wrote the work, since become so celebrated, 
" No Cross, No Crown/' This treatise is admitted to 
be of extraordinary merit; not only in a literary point 
of view, considering the short time and the circum- 
stances under which it was produced, but in the clear 
and cogent manner in which it presents the sinful in- 
dulgences of the great body of the professors of Chris- 
tianity, and enforces the self-denying requisitions of 
the religion of Christ. 

Finding that some parts of his "Sandy Foundation 
Shaken '^ had been misunderstood or misrepresented, 
so as to give currency to the charge of his being un- 
sound in relation to the divinity and atonement of 
Christ, William Penn at once wrote an explanation of 
what had been misrepresented, and in exposition of 
his views on these cardinal points of Christian faith. 
This was entitled, "■ Innocency with her Open Face.'' 
In this Avork he says, "Let all know, that I pretend 
to know no other name by which remission, atonement, 
and salvation can be obtained, but Jesus Christ the 
Saviour, who is the power and wisdom of God." As- 
serting his full belief in the divinity of Christ, he 
observes, " He that is the everlasting Wisdom, the 
divine Power, the true Light, the only Saviour, the 
creating Word of all things, whether visible or in- 
visible, and their Upholder by his own power, is with- 
out contradiction, God; but all these qualifications 
and divine properties are, by the concurrent testimony 
of Scripture, ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ, there- 
2* B 



18 WILLIAM PENN. 

fore without scruple, I call and believe him really to 
be the mighty God/^ 

In replying to Dr. John Collenges, some years 
after the publication of " The Sandy Foundation 
Shaken/^ who had at that time brought forward 
exceptions to its doctrines, William Penn again ex- 
plicitly asserts his full belief in the proper divinity of, 
and atonement made by, Christ : and in the doctrine of 
justification as held by Friends at that time and ever 
since. " I do heartily believe that Jesus Christ is the 
only true and everlasting God, by whom all things 
were made that are made, in the heavens above or the 
earth beneath, or the waters under the earth : that He 
is as omnipotent, so omniscient and omnipresent, there- 
fore God.'' And in regard to the atonement and 
justification, he thus writes, '^ He that would not have 
me mistaken, on purpose to render his charge against 
me just, whether it be so or no, may see in mi/ apology 
for ' The Sandy Foundation Shaken,' that I otherwise 
meant that I am charactered. In short, I say, both as 
to this and the other point of justification, that Jesus 
Christ was a sacrijice for sin; that He was set forth to 
be a propitiation for the sins of the whole loorld ; to 
declare God's righteousness, for the remission of sins 
that are passed, etc.; to all that repented and had faith 
in His Son. Therein the love of God appeared, that 
He declared His good-will thereby to be reconciled ; 
Christ bearing away the sins that are passed, as the 
scape-goat did of old ; not excluding inward work ; for 
till that is begun, none can be benefitted ; though it is 
not the work, but God's free love, that remits and blots 
out ; of which the death of Christ and His sacrificing 
himself was a most certain declaration and confirma- 



WILLIAM PENN. 19 

tion. In short, that declared remission to all who 
believe and obey, for the sins that are past; which is 
tlie first, part of Christ's work (as it is a king's to 
pardon a traitor before he advanceth him), and hith- 
erto the acquittance imputes a righteousness — inas- 
much as men, on true repentance, are imputed as clean 
of guilt as if they had never sinned — and thus far are 
justified; but the completiori of this by the working 
out of sin inherent, must be by the Power and Spirit 
of Christ in the heart, destroying the old man and his 
deeds, and bringing in the new and everlasting right- 
eousness. So that which I wrote against, is such 
doctrine as extended Christ's death and obedience, not 
to the first, but to the second part of justification ; not 
the pacifying of conscience as to past sin ; but to com- 
plete salvation without cleansing and purging from all 
filthiness of flesh and spirit, by the internal operation 
of his holy power and Spirit." 

Notwithstanding ^yilliam Penn is thus clear and 
explicit in correcting the misunderstanding of his 
Christian faith, to which some of his expressions in 
^' The Sandy Foundation Shaken " had given rise, and 
in his full avowal of his belief in the Deity of Christ, 
and the atonement made by Him for the sins of man- 
kind ; as also in the doctrine of justification by faith 
in Him ; yet those who are anxious to represent 
Friends as Socinians, or as denying the atonement of 
Christ, are still so unjust to his unequivocal and 
widely-published opinions on these points, and so 
ungenerous to his character and memory, as well as 
untruthful in their representation of Friends, as to 
claim him as authority for their disbelief in these 
fundamental doctrines. 



20 WILLIAM PEN N. 

Though he had addressed a communication to Lord 
Arlington, Secretary of State, on whose warrant he 
was committed to the Tower, in which he denied the 
charo^es broup-ht as^ainst him, so far as he had been 
able to ascertain them ; declaring they were the result 
of ignorance and malice, and requesting that he might 
have an audience with the King, in order to hear the 
accusation of his enemies, and have an opportunity to 
defend himself; or if he could not have access to the 
King, then to be brouglit, with his accusers, face to 
face before him, the Secretary of State, it Avas disre- 
2:arded, nor was the ris^or of his confinement abated. 
^^ Innocency with her Open Face ^' had, however, pro- 
duced a change of public feeling towards him ; and his 
father, who could not but respect the consistent firm- 
ness and Christian endurance of his son, and who had 
himself been passing through a severe ordeal from the 
machinations of his enemies in the House of Commons, 
visited him in his dungeon, and began to use the 
influence he continued to hold with the Duke of York 
and the King, on his behalf. Whether at his instance 
or not is not known, but Arlington, though declining 
to give audience to William Penn himself, sent the 
King's Chaplain, Stillingfleet, to liave an interview 
with him, and ascertain what concessions he Avould be 
Avilling to make to the offended hierarchy. Their 
conversation appears to have been conducted in a 
friendly si)irit and manner: the Chaplain holding up the 
brilliant future that would be realized by Penn if he 
would recant some of liis opinions, and dwelling on the 
favorable disposition of the Duke of York and King 
towards him. William told him, "The Tower is the 
worst argument in the world/' and that nothing could 



WILLIAM PENN. 21 

induce him to violate bis conscientious convictions, so 
there seemed nothing gained. But suddenly and 
unexpectedly an order came from the King for his 
release, and he left the gloomy confines of his prison- 
house without making any concession or accepting a 
pardon. The discharge was believed to have been the 
work of the Duke of York, and William ever cherished 
a grateful feeling towards him for this generous act. 

In the year 1670, Friends in England underwent 
great persecution and suffering on account of their 
religious principles. The law against Dissenters, that 
had just expired, had failed in its object, and it was 
therefore determined to try another method, which 
enlisted the cupidity of the depraved class as in- 
formers, and used the almost unrestrained functions 
of officials clothed with absolute power to impoverish 
and harass those who met together for Divine worship 
in a way differing from the " Church of England,'' in 
the hope of rendering such unable to live in their 
native country. Accordingly a third ^^Act to prevent 
and suppress seditious conventicles " was passed by 
Parliament, and received the royal assent in the 
Fourth month, 1670. 

Persecution now ran riot; and the power being by 
design placed in the hands of the most profligate 
and debased, rapine, havoc, and impoverishment were 
spread over the nation by the graceless informers, 
abetted by a venal magistracy, eager to share in the 
plunder. 

But the storm, biting and incessant as it was, was no 
more effective in deterring Friends from assembling 
for the purpose of worshipping their Almighty Father 
in Heaven, than that which had been raised under the 



22 WILLIAM PENN. 

former " Conventicle Act." Grievously spoiled and cru- 
elly abused as they were, they knew their enemies could 
truthfully allege nothing against them but that which 
concerned the law of their God ; and in the sincerity 
of their hearts they made their appeal unto Him, with 
full confidence that He would extend his fatherly, 
protecting care over them ; w^ould cause the wrath of 
man to bring Him praise, and when He saw it was 
enough, would restrain the remainder of wrath, and 
limit the rage jind cruelty of their merciless tormentors. 
Deprived of the use of their meeting-houses, they 
assembled as near to them as they could get; and 
beaten, bruised, imprisoned, and fined, as many of 
each company were almost sure to be, the next meet- 
ing-day found others at the same place, engaged in the 
performance of the same indispensable duty ; ready to 
encounter, with meekness and patience, the wrath of 
their persecutors, and to suffer for the maintenance of 
their rights as men and their obligation as Christians. 

Their treatment in London, bad as it was, was 
thought to be less severe than in many other parts of 
the Kingdom. Yet in that city, it was a common 
occurrence for those who attended their meetings for 
worship, to be beaten with the muskets of the foot- 
soldiers, and the sabres of the dragoons, until the 
blood ran down upon the ground ; women, sometimes 
young maidens, were maltreated in the most shameful 
manner. 

On the fourteenth of the Eighth month, 1670, Wil- 
liam Penn and William Mead were taken from the 
meeting held in the street, as near to Grace-church 
meeting-house as they could get ; the former being en- 
gaged in ministry at the time. They were brought to 



WILLIAM PENN. 23 

trial on tlie first of the Ninth month, before the Mayor, 
Sainnel Starling ; the Recorder, John Howell ; several 
Aldermen, and the Sheriffs. William Mead had for- 
merly been a captain in the Commonwealth^s army, 
but having embraced the truths of the Gospel as held 
by Friends, he of course gave up all connection with 
military life, and is mentioned in the indictment as a 
linen-draper, in London; though it is probable he 
resided most of his time in Essex, where he had a con- 
siderable landed estate. He afterwards married a 
daughter of Margaret Fell. 

The indictment charged that they, with other per- 
sons, to the number of three hundred, with force and 
arms, unlawfully and tumultuously assembled together, 
on the fifteenth day of August, 1670, and the said 
William Penn, by agreement made beforehand with 
William Mead, preached and spoke to the assembly; 
by reason whereof, a great concourse and tumult of 
people continued a long time in the street, in contempt 
of the King and his law, to the great disturbance of 
his peace, and to the terror of many of his liege people 
and subjects. 

The character of the trial might be judged by the 
first incident that occurred. Being brought before the 
Court on the third of the Ninth month, an officer took 
off their hats on their entrance ; whereupon the Mayor 
angrily ordered him to put them on again ; which 
being done, the Recorder fined them forty marks 
apiece, for alleged contempt of Court, by ap})earing 
before it with their hats on. This trial has become 
celebrated, not only on account of the ability with 
which William Penn — ^then in his twenty-sixth year 
— defended his cause, and sustained the inalienable 



24 WILLIAM PENN. 

rights of Englishmen, bnt for the inflexible firmness 
of the jury in maintaining their own rights, and ad- 
hering to tlieir conscientious convictions; notwith- 
standing the iniquitous determination of the Court, tc 
enforce its own will, to convict and punish the pris- 
oners at the bar, and to oblige the jury to become their 
tools for that purpose. 

The indictment was incorrect, even in the statement 
of the time when the offence was said to have taken 
place ; as it was on the fourteenth of the month, and 
not on the fifteenth, and therefore it ought to have 
been quashed by the Court, and the prisoners dis- 
charo-ed. The evidence of the three witnesses examined 
was altogether inconclusive, but William Penn boldly 
said to the Court, ^^ We confess ourselves to be so far 
from recanting or declining to vindicate the assembling 
of ourselves, to preach, pray, or worship the eternal, 
holy, just God, that we declare to all the world, that 
we do believe it to be our indispensable duty to meet 
incessantly on so good an account ; nor shall all the 
powers upon earth be able to divert us from reveren- 
cins: and adoring; the God who made us.'^ He then 
asked the Court to tell him upon what law the indict- 
ment and proceedings were founded. The Recorder 
answering, the common law, Penn requested him to tell 
him what law that was; for if it was common, it must 
be easy to define it. But the Recorder refused to tell 
him, saying it was lex non soipta, and it was not to be 
expected that he could say at once what it was, for 
some had been thirty or forty years studying it. Penn 
observed that Lord Coke had declared tliat common 
law was common right, and common right the great 
chartered privileges confirmed by former Kings. The 



WILLIAM PENN. 25 

Recorder, greatly excited, told him he was a trouble- 
some fellow, and it was not to the honor of the Court 
to suffer him to go on ; but Penn calmly insisted that 
the Court was bound to explain to the prisoners at 
their bar the law they had violated, and upon which 
they were being tried; and he told them plainly that, 
unless they did so, they were violating the chartered 
rights of Englishmen, and acting upon an arbitrary 
determination to sacrifice those rights to their own 
illegal designs. Whereupon the Mayor and Recorder 
ordered him to be turned into the bail-dock. William 
Penn, — '^ These are but so many vain exclamations ; 
is this justice or true judgment? Must I, therefore, 
be taken away because I plead for the fundamental 
laws of England ? '^ Then, addressing himself to the 
jury, he said : ^^ However, this I leave upon your con- 
sciences who are of the jury, and my sole judges, that 
if these ancient fundamental laws which relate to liberty 
and property, and are not limited to particular per- 
suasions in matters of religion, must not be indispensa- 
bly maintained and observed, who can say he hath a 
right to the coat upon his back. Certainly our lib- 
erties are openly to be invaded, our children enslaved, 
our families ruined, and our estates led away in triumph, 
by every sturdy beggar and malicious informer, as 
their trophies, but our pretended forfeits for conscience' 
sake. The Lord of heaven and earth will be judge 
between us in this matter.'^ The hearing of this 
emphatic speech was so troublesome to the Recorder, 
that he cried, '^ Be silent there ! '^ At which William 
Penn returned, '^ I am not to be silent in a cause 
wherein I am so much concerned, and not only myself, 
but many ten thousand families besides." 
3 



26 WILLIAM PENN. 

Penn being thrust into the bail-dock, William Mead 
was called up, and was asked if he was ])resent at the 
meeting. AYliich question he refused to answer, on 
the ground that he could not be required to accuse 
himself. He then told the jury that the indictment 
was false in many particulars, and that William Penn 
was right in demanding the law upon which it was 
based. It charged him with assembling by force and 
arms, tumultuously and illegally, which was untrue ; 
and he informed them of Lord Coke's definition of a 
rout or riot, or unlawful assembly. Here the Recorder 
interrupted him, and endeavored to cast ridicule on 
what he had said, by taking oiF his hat and saying, ^' I 
thank you for telling us what the law is.'^ On Mead 
replying sharply to a taunting speech of Richard 
Brown, the old and inveterate enemy of Friends, the 
Mayor told him " he deserved to have his tongue cut 
out.^' He, too, was put into the bail-dock, and the 
Court proceeded to charge the jury. Whereupon 
William Penn cried out with a loud voice to the jury, 
to take notice, that it was illegal to charge the jiu'y in 
the prisoners' absence, and without giving them 
opportunity to plead their cause. The Recorder 
ordered him to be })ut down. William Mead then 
remonstrating against such 'M)arbarous and unjust 
proceedings," the Court ordered them both to be put 
into a filthy, stinking })lace, called "the hole.'' After 
an absence of an hour and a half, eight of the jury 
came down agreed, but four staid up and would not 
assent. The Court sent for the four, and menaced 
them for dissenting. When the jury was all together, 
the prisoners were brought to the bar, and the verdict 
demanded. The Foreman said William Penn was 



AVILLIAM PENN. 27 

guilty of speaking in Grace-church Street. Tlie Court 
endeavored to extort something more, but the Foreman 
declared he was not authorized to say anything but 
what he had given in. The Recorder, highly displeased, 
told them they might as w^ell say nothing, and they were 
sent back. They soon returned with a written verdict, 
signed by all of them, that they found William Penn 
guilty of speaking or preaching in Grace-church Street, 
and William Mead not guilty. This so incensed the 
Court, that they told them they would have a verdict 
they would accept, and that ^' they should be locked up 
Avithout meat, drink, fire, or tobacco : you shall not 
think thus to abuse the Court. We Avill have a ver- 
dict, by the help of God, or you shall starve for it.^' 
Against this outrageous infraction of justice and right, 
William Penn remonstrated, saying ; "My jury, who 
are my judges, ought not to be thus menaced; their 
verdict should be free, and not compelled ; the Bench 
ought to wait upon them, but not forestall them. I 
do desire that justice may be done me, and that the 
arbitrary resolves of the Bench may not be made the 
measure of my jury's verdict.'^ The Recorder cried 
out, " Stop that prating fellow's mouth, or put him out 
of Court." Penn insisted that the agreement of the 
twelve men was a verdict, and that the Clerk of the 
Court should record it; and, addressing the jury, he 
said: "You are Englishmen; mind your privileges; 
give not away your right ! " To which some of them 
replied, " Nor will w^e ever do it." 

The jury were sent to their room, and the prisoners 
to jail, the former being deprived of food, drink, and 
every accommodation. The same verdict was returned 
the next morning; calling from the Bench upbraiding 



28 WILLIAM PENN. 

and threats, similar to those so lavishly bestowed on 
the jury before: the Recorder, in his passion, going so 
far as to say, " Till now, I never understood the reason 
of the policy and prudence of the Spaniards in suffering 
the Inquisition among them ; and certainly, it will 
never be well with us till something like the Spanish 
Inquisition be in England.'^ Again the jury was sent 
back to their room, and the prisoners returned to New- 
gate ; both being so kept for another twenty-four 
hours; the jury without victuals, drink, or other ac- 
commodations. The next morning they were again 
brought into Court, and the usual question respecting 
their verdict being put, the Foreman first replied, 
"You have our written verdict already/^ The Re- 
corder refusing to allow it to be read, the Clerk re- 
peated the query, " How say you, is William Penn 
guilty or not guilty ? '' The Foreman answered : " Not 
guilty.'^ The same verdict was given in the case of 
William Mead. The jury being sejiarately questioned 
they all made the same reply. The Recorder, exas- 
perated at their decision and firmness, after pouring 
out his invectives upon them, said : " The Court fines 
you forty marks a man, and imprisonment till paid." 

William Penn now demanded his liberty; but the 
Mayor said, " No, you are in for your fines." " Fines ! 
for what?" replied Penn. " For contempt of Court," 
was the answer. Penn then declared that, according to 
the laws, no man could be fined without a trial by jury ; 
but the Mayor ordered him and Mead first to the bail- 
dock, and then to the jail ; where the jury was likewise 
consigned. 

But this noble stand of the jury for law and right 
was not allowed to terminate in the punishment of these 



WILLIAM PENN. 29 

upright men, and the continued gratification of the 
revenge of the unjust Judges. After ineffectually de- 
manding of the Court their release two or three times, 
a writ of habeas corpus was granted by Judge Vaughan ; 
who, upon hearing the case, decided their fine and im- 
prisonment illegal, and set them free. 

The usage of the Courts had not before been reduced 
to a legal and positive form. It had been the occa- 
sional practice of the Bench to impose fines on " incon- 
venient juries,'' and had long remained practically an 
unsettled question, whether a jury had a right so far 
to exercise its own discretion as to bring in a verdict 
contrary to the sense of the Court. This important 
point was now decided ; the Judges — there were 
others associated with Vaughan — adopting the views 
that it was the special function of the jury to judge of 
the evidence, and that the Bench, though at liberty to 
offer suggestions for the consideration of the jurymen, 
might not lawfully coerce them. 

William Penn, anxious to have the cases of himself 
and his friend reviewed by a Superior Court, wrote to 
his father, affectionately desiring him not to interfere 
to have him released. But the old man, who was fast 
declining, and anxious to have the company and atten- 
tions of his son, to. whom he was not only reconciled, 
but on whose filial affection and care he had learned to 
lean for comfort and support, was not willing to wait 
the tardy process of law ; and therefore paid the fines 
of both the Friends, and had them set free. The 
Admiral survived but a few days the liberation of his 
son ; in which time he sent one of his friends to the 
King and Duke of York, to make his dying request, 
that, so far as they could, they would hereafter befriend 



30 WILLIAM PENN. 

his loved son ; which both promised to do. Address- 
ing his son shortly before his death, he said : " Son 
William, if you and your friends keep to your plain 
way of preaching, and your plain way of living, you 
will make an end of the priests to the end of the 
world." Again — sensible, it is probable, of the wrong 
he had before committed in his course towards his son 
— he said, emphatically : ^'Let nothing in the world 
tempt you to wrong your conscience. I charge you, 
do nothing against your conscience ; so you will keep 
peace at home, which will be a feast to you in the day 
of trouble.'^ 

Near the close of this year, William Penn was again 
arrested at Wheeler Street meeting, by some of the 
officers of Robinson, Lieutenant of the Tower, who had 
sent them there for the purpose, and he was taken 
before him. His examination, as ^^ublished, shows his 
Christian courage and firmness, as he exposed the 
duplicity of Robinson in his profession of friendship 
for him ; and asserted his innocence of the charges 
made against him. He was sent to Newgate for six 
months ; during which time he drew up an account of 
the memorable trial at the Old Bailey; also several 
dissertations which were afterwards jiublished as tracts : 
one of these was, ^^ The great Case of Liberty of Con- 
science, once more briefly Debated, and Defended by 
authority of Scripture, Reason, and Antiquity." 

Soon after his release he married Gulielma Maria 
Springett, daughter of Sir William Springett. She 
was a pious young woman, of well-educated and amiable 
manners. After his marriage he settled in Hertford- 
shire. 

In 1677 George Fox, William Penn, Robert Barclay, 



WILLIAM PENN. 31 

and some other Friends, went over to Holland on a 
religious visit, and travelled into Germany. In the 
course of this journey, William Penn and two other 
Friends visited Elizabeth, Princess Palatine of the 
Rhine, at her Court at Herwerden. She was the 
oldest daughter of Frederick Y., Elector Palatine, and 
at one time King of Bohemia ; her mother being the 
sister of Charles I. of England. She is represented to 
have been a woman of good natural capacity, well 
educated, and of amiable disposition and manners ; and 
to have governed her small territory with good judg- 
ment and much consideration for the welfare of her 
subjects. Having been brought under the power of 
religion, she manifested strong interest in others who 
were sincere in their religious convictions, and was 
opposed to interference with liberty of conscience. 
Having become acquainted with the religious tenets of 
Friends, by conversation with Robert Barclay and 
Benjamin Furly, who visited her in 1676, and with 
women Friends from Amsterdam, she found them to 
answer to the convictions of Truth on her own mind ; 
and she not only gladly received Friends when they 
came to see her, but in her letters to several of the 
more prominent members among them, and to others 
at the English Court, she unhesitatingly expressed her 
high estimation of them, and her disapproval of the 
persecution to which those that held them were sub- 
jected. 

The Friends named, having requested permission to 
have a religious opportunity with her, it was readily 
granted; she having in her family at that time the 
Countess of Homes, her intimate friend, and a French 
lady. Of this interview William Penn thus writes in 



32 WILLIAM PENN. 

his journal: "I can truly say it, and that in GocFs 
fear, I was very deeply and reverently affected with 
the sense that was upon my spirit of the great and 
notable day of the Lord, and the breaking in of his 
eternal power upon all nations; and of the raising of 
the slain Witness to judge the world ; who is the 
Treasury of life and peace, of wisdom and glory, to all 
that receive Him in the hour of his judgments, and 
abide with Him. The sense of this deep and sure 
foundation, which God is laying as the ho])e of eternal 
life and glory for all to build upon, filled my soul 
with an holy testimony to them, which in a living 
sense was followed by my brethren; and so the meet- 
ing ended about the eleventh hour." 

In the afternoon they held another meeting with 
them, which was also so remarkably favored, that 
William Penn says : ^^ Well, let my right hand forget 
its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my 
mouth, when I shall forget the loving-kindness of the 
Lord, and tlie sure mercies of our God to us, his tra- 
vailing servants, that day.'^ 

Subsec^uently, on their return towards Holland, 
these Friends again stopped at Herwerden, and upon 
informing the Princess of their arrival, they were again 
gladly received by her and her friends. A meeting 
being held with them and some others whom they 
had invited, the next morning, William Penn states in 
his journal : " About eight the meeting began, and 
held till eleven, several persons of the city, as well as 
those of her own family, being present. The Lord's 
power very much affected them, and the Countess was 
twice much broken while we spoke. After the people 
were gone out of the chamber, it lay upon me from the 



WILLIAM PENN. 33 

Lord to speak to them two — the Princess and the 
Countess — with respect to their particular conditions ; 
occasioned by these words from the Princess, ' I am 
fully convinced ; but oh ! my sins are great/ While 
I was speaking, the glorious power of the I^ord won- 
derfully rose, yea, after an awful manner, and had a 
deep entrance upon their spirits ; especially the Count- 
ess, so that she was broken to pieces : God hath raised, 
and I hope iixed, his own testimony in them." 

The next day they had a parting interview in the 
chamber of the Princess, which was equally fivored. 
" Magnified be the name of the Lord; He overshadowed 
us with His glory. His heavenly, breaking, dissolv- 
ing power richly flowed among us, and his ministering 
angel of life was in the midst of us.'^ 

During the time of severe suffering through which 
Friends were passing in Great Britain after the Res- 
toration, as was natural, on finding that redress or 
abatement of their grievances was almost beyond hope, 
they seriously entertained a project for finding homes 
somewhere beyond the reach of their fellow-men, who 
seemed bent on extirpating them, by the slow j^rocess 
of the cruel punishments inflicted for their religious 
faith. George Fox, in common with several other 
prominent members, seriously contemplated the pur- 
chase of a tract of land from the Indians in North 
America; where, not the whole body of Friends in 
Great Britain, but such as felt themselves free to leave 
their native land, might emigrate and enjoy the right 
of worshipping the Almighty according to the dictates 
of their consciences. 

Josiah Cole, while engaged in religious service in 
America, was commissioned to look out, and enter into 

C 



34 WILLIAM PENN. 

treaty for such a resting-place ; and at one time he had 
several interviews with the chiefs of the Susquehanna 
Indians, in order to treat with them for a part of their 
territory. Owing to a war coming on between that 
tribe and another, the proposed purchase fell through. 

In 1676 William Penn, as trustee for the creditors 
of Edward Billinge, one of the proprietors of West 
Jersey, and afterwards by the purchase of a proprietary 
right in East Jersey, became concerned in the coloniza- 
tion of that Province. Others were associated with him 
in the undertaking, among whom were several of his 
own Society, under whose management a peaceful set- 
tlement was effected. A form of government was 
agreed on for West Jersey, and a declaration of funda- 
mental principles, to be incorporated in it, consented 
to ; among which was the stipulation, '^ No person to 
be called in question or molested for his conscience, or 
for worshipping according to his conscience.^' 

Many Friends of good estates, and highly esteemed 
for their religious standing and experience, crossed the 
Atlantic to this land of liberty, and between 1678 and 
1681 about fourteen hundred had arrived and settled ; 
principally in the country bordering the eastern shore 
of the Delaware. These immigrants suffered the pri- 
vations and hardships incident to beginning civilized 
life in an unbroken wilderness, surrounded by savages, 
who were dependent in great measure upon the uncer- 
tain supplies of the chase for their own sustenance, and 
who rarely laid up much in store for future wants. 
But, by uniform uprightness in all their dealings with 
these children of the forest, and their Christian kind- 
ness towards them, they soon gained their good-will, 
and, in times of scarcity, excited their sympathy ; so 



WILLIAM PENN. 35 

that often they were relieved by voluntary offerings of 
corn and meat from these untutored red men, when it 
seemed as though otherwise they must have suffered 
for food. 

Proud, in the preface to his " History of Pennsylva- 
nia,'^ gives in a note an account of these trials, drawn 
up by one of the Friends who settled, in New Jersey, 
containing the following passages : 

^^ A providential hand was very visible and remarka- 
ble in many instances that might be mentioned, and 
the Indians were even rendered our benefactors and 
protectors. AYithout any carnal weapon, we entered 
the land and inhabited therein, as safe as if there had 
been thousands of garrisons ; for the Most High pre- 
served us from harm, both of man and beast.'' " The 
aforesaid people (Friends) were zealous in performing 
their religious services ; for having at first no meeting- 
house to keep a public meeting in, they made a tent 
or covert of sail-cloth to meet under ; and after they 
got some little houses to dwell in, then they kept their 
meetings in one of them till they could build a meeting- 
house." 

In the course of the business which necessarily 
claimed his attention in the colonization of the ]:)rov- 
ince of New Jersey, William Penn naturally had his 
thoughts frequently directed towards the settlements 
of his countrymen on the far-distant shores of America ; 
and having been disappointed in the part he took in 
English politics, in an unsuccessful effort to procure 
the election of his friend, Algernon Sidney, to Parlia- 
ment, his interest in that part of tlie world increased, 
as his mind became occupied with tlie idea of settling a 
free colony in the pathless wilderness on the other side 



36 WILLIAM PENN. 

of the Atlantic; where men should live under an 
elective government, enact the laws by which they 
were to be controlled, admit of no master, but all share 
in equal rights, and rest in the enjoyment of civil and 
religious liberty. Witnessing the success that attended 
the removal of Friends to New Jersey, where they 
were freed from the cruel persecution they had endured 
while in Great Britain, under which their brethren at 
home were still suffering grievously, he became desirous 
to obtain the control of such portion of the yet unap- 
propriated territory over which the King of England 
claimed the sovereignty, as would enable him to found 
a colony, and ^' make a holy experiment ^^ — as he 
called it — of opening an asylum for the oppressed of 
every land ; where there should be secured equality of 
political and civil rights, universal liberty of con- 
science, personal freedom, and a just regard for the 
rights of property. 

Admiral Penn at different times had loaned money 
to the British government, and to the Duke of York; 
which the costly profligacy of the Court had prevented 
being repaid, and, with the interest accruing, it 
amounted at that time to between sixteen and seven- 
teen thousand pounds sterling. In 1680, William 
Penn petitioned the King, that in order to cancel the 
debt, he should grant him the tract of country bounded 
on the east by the Delaware River, and on the south 
by Lord Baltimore's Province of Maryland; while the 
western and northern limits were undefined ; though 
the latter was not to interfere with the Province of 
New York. But William Penn was by no means 
popular at the Court. The courtiers despised him for 
his strict conscientiousness; the clerical party hated 



WILLIAM PENN. 37 

him for bis Quakerism, and open opposition to their 
assumed place and power ; while the active interest he 
had taken in promoting the return of Sidney — a known 
Republican — to Parliament, had given offence to the 
King and Duke. Private interests and jealousies were 
enlisted against him, and the agents of Lord Baltimore 
and Sir John Werden, deputy for the Duke of York, 
were assiduous in their efforts to thwart him, and defeat 
bis application. 

But he was not a man easily turned aside from pur- 
suing that which be thought right to attain. The Earl 
of Sutherland was his firm friend in the Privy Coun- 
cil, and there were several other persons of note who 
took warm interest in the success of his colonial pro- 
ject. Penn sought and obtained an interview with 
the Duke of York, and succeeded in changing his feel- 
ings towards himself, and his views relative to the 
policy of the grant. But perhaps the most cogent 
argument with the King and Council was, the persist- 
ent presentation by one of the latter that, if the grant 
was withheld, the money due must be forthcoming. 
There were many vexatious delays and disappoint- 
ments ; but finally the boundaries of the Province 
being adjusted as was then thought clearly and defi- 
nitely, and such clauses introduced into the terms of 
the patent or charter as were deemed necessary to 
secure the paramount authority of the King, Charles 
affixed his signature to it on the fourth of the Third 
month, 1681. William Penn proposed to call his 
Province New Wales, but the Secretary, wdio was a 
Welshman, would not consent to it. He then sug- 
gested Sylvania, to which the King prefixed Penn, out 
of respect to the late Admiral ; and though William 



38 AV^II.LIAM PENN. 

objected to it, as savoring of vanity in him, it was 
determined to adhere to that name. 

By the Charter, William Penn was made sole and 
absolute pro])rietary of the Province ; with power, with 
the assent of the freemen residing therein, to make all 
necessary laws, provided they were not inconsistent 
with the law^s of England ; to grant pardons or re- 
prieves, except in cases of wilful murder or treason, 
and to enjoy all such duties on imports or exports as 
the representatives of the people might assess. There 
was a clause in the Charter, inserted at the solicitation 
of the Bishop of London, that whenever twenty of 
the inhabitants should petition the said Bishop for a 
preacher, he should be permitted to reside in the 
Province. 

His design from the first was to establish a govern- 
ment upon Christian principles. In referring to this 
subject, he says : " And because I have been somewhat 
exercised at times, about the nature and end of govern- 
ment among men, it is reasonable to expect that I 
should endeavor to establish a just and righteous one 
in this Province, that others may take example by it; 
truly this my heart desires. For nations v/ant a pre- 
cedent, and till vice and corrupt manners be impartially 
rebuked and punished, and till virtue and sobriety be 
cherished, the wrath of God will hang over nations. I 
do therefore desire the Lord's wisdom to guide me, and 
those that may be concerned with me, that we may do 
the thing that is truly wise and just.'' 

His constant desire, that all his movements might 
tend to the glory of God, is shown in the spirit which 
breathes through the following letter, written to 
Stephen Crisp, on the eve of his departure from Eng- 
land : 



WILLIAM PENN. 39 

"Dear S. C. : — My dear and lasting love in the 
Lord's everlasting truth reaches to thee, with whom is 
my fellowship in the gospel of peace, that is more dear 
and precious to my soul than all the treasures and 
pleasures of this world ; for when a few years are past, 
we shall all go the way whence we sliall never return : 
and that we may unweariedly serve the Lord in our 
day and place, and in the end enjoy a portion with the 
blessed that are at rest, is the breathing of my soul! 

'' Stephen ! we know one another, and I need not 
say much to thee; but this I will say, thy parting 
dwells with me, or rather thy love at my parting. 
How innocent, how tender, how like the little child 
that has no guile! The Lord will bless that ground. 
I have also a letter from thee wliich comforted me ; 
for many are my trials, yet not more than my supplies 
from my Heavenly Father, wiiose glory I seek, and 
the renown of his blessed name. And truly, Stephen, 
there is work enough, and here is room to work in. 
Surely God will come in for a share in tiiis planting 
work, and that leaven shall leaven the whole lump in 
time. I do not believe the Lord's providence had run 
this way towards me, but that he has an heavenly end 
and service in it. So with Him I leave all, and myself 
and thee, and his dear people, and blessed name on 
earth. 

"God Almighty, immortal and eternal, be with us, 
that in the body and out of the body we may be his 
forever ! ^' 

Amid his preparations for the voyage, he addressed 
to his wife and children, who were to be left behind, a 
letter fraught with the most earnest solicitude for their 
well-being every way, and full of the most tender and 
judicious counsel. It thus concludes: "So, my God, 
that hath blessed me with His abundant mercies, both 
of this and the other and blessed life, be with you all, 
guide you by His counsel, bless you, and bring you to 



40 WILLIAM PENN. 

his eternal glory, thafc you may shine, my clear children, 
in the firmament of God's power, with the blessed 
spirits of the just, that celestial family, praising and 
admiring Him, the God and Father of it, forever. 
For there is no God like unto Him ; the God of Isaac 
and of Jacob, the God of the prophets, the a[)ostles, 
and martyrs of Jesus, in whom 1 live forever. 

" So farcAvell to my thrice dearly beloved wife and 
children ! 

'^ Yours, as God pleaseth, in that which no waters 
can quench, no time forget, nor distance wear away, but 
remains forever." 

Being now feudal sovereign of so extensive a terri- 
tory, so far as the act of the King and Council could 
make him, William Penn published a descriptioii of 
the natural features and resources of the country, and 
invited those who were disposed to change their place 
of abode and prepared to emigrate, to resort to Penn- 
sylvania, and under its Christian government and 
special privileges, secure the blessings of freedom and 
political equality. He did not disappoint his friends 
in their expectation of the benign form of government 
he instituted. It was democratic in its spirit, and its 
provisions were liberal, and fitted to meet the demands 
of the broad principles of popular rights, as they were 
from time to time developed. The article in relation 
to liberty of conscience deserves to be noticed, as the 
public declaration of the principles of Friends on that 
point, where they had tlie power of government in 
their own hands. 

" Almighty God being the only Lord of Conscience, 
Father of lights and si)irits, and the author as well as 
object of all Divine knowledge, faith and worship; 



W I L L I A M P E N N . 41 

who only can enlighten the mind, and persuade and 
convince the understanding of people, in due rev^erence 
to his authority over the souls of mankind : It is 
enacted by the authority aforesaid, (General Assembly 
met at Chester, Twelve month, fourth, 1682,) that no 
person now, or at any time hereafter, living in this 
Province, who shall confess and acknowledge one 
Almighty God, to be the Creator, upholder and ruler 
of the world, and professeth him or hei'self obliged in 
conscience to live peaceably and justly under the civil 
government, shall in any wise be molested or preju- 
diced for his or her conscientious persuasion or prac- 
tice; nor shall he or she at any time be compelled to 
frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or 
ministry whatever, contrary to his or her mind; but 
shall freely and fully enjoy his or her Christian liberty 
in that respect, without any interruption or reflection. 
And if any person shall abuse or deride any other, for 
his or her different persuasion and practice in matter 
of religion, such shall be looked upon as a disturber 
of the peace, and be punished accordingly.'^ 

There were no oaths exacted, and no provision made 
for military defence. He exempted from the penalty 
of death two hundred crimes for which that punish- 
ment was inflicted in England, though life was to be 
forfeited for wilful murder. With a view of connect- 
ing reformation with punishment by imprisonment, 
prisoners were to be kej^t at work, and subjected to 
moral discipline. And it was enacted : " That, as a 
careless and corrupt administration of justice draws the 
wrath of God upon Magistrates, so the wildness and 
looseness of the people provoke the indignation of God 
against a country; therefore, that all such oflences 
4* 



42 WILLIAM PENN. 

against God as swearing, cursing, lying, profane talk- 
ing, drunkenness, drinking of healths, obscene words, 
(and several other scandalous acts particularly named,) 
treasons, misprisions, duels, murders, felony, sedition, 
maims, forcible entries, and other violences to the per- 
sons and estates of the inhabitants of the Province ; all 
prizes, stage-plays, cards, dice, May-games, gamesters, 
masques, revels, bull-baitings, cock-fightings, bear- 
baitings, and the like, which excite the people to 
rudeness, cruelty, and irreligion, shall be respectively 
discouraged and severely punished, according to the 
appointment of the Governor and freemen in provin- 
cial council and general assembly/' 

George Fox had repeatedly expressed his Christian 
solicitude for the colored people held as slaves, at that 
time, by Friends. He had strongly urged upon all 
who held them to see to their instruction, especially in 
the truths of the gospel as recorded in tlie Scriptures ; 
that after serving for a certain time they should be 
freed, and that provision should be made for their 
comfortable enjoyment of old age. William Penn, in 
the charter he granted to ^' The Free Society of 
Traders," inserted the following article, showing how 
fully he sympathized in this feeling of George Fox, 
and his desire to promote manumission after a term of 
service : " Black servants to be free at fourteen years, 
and, on giving to the Society two-thirds of what they 
can produce on land allotted to them by the Society, 
with stock and tools. 1£ they agree not to this, to be 
servants until they do." 

There were about two thousand inhabitants, — ex- 
clusive of Indians, — mostly English, Swedes, and 
Dutch, when William Penn took possession of his 



WILLIAM PENN. 43 

Province. The well-known character of the Proprie- 
tor, the strong indncements offered by the system of 
government proposed, and the natural advantages from 
soil and climate of the newly-opened domain, all acted 
as powerful incentives to emigrate ; not only to men 
who were struggling hardly and uncertainly at their 
native home for the means of subsistence, but to others, 
who, though with sufficient to live comfortably where 
they were, were anxious to escape from the intolerant 
oppression of a Court and hierarchy bent on enforcing 
the alternatives of conformity to certain prescribed 
dogmas of their own construction, or suffering, if not 
ruin, by imprisonment or deprivation of estate. 

William Penn arrived in Pennsylvania in 1682, and 
in that year and the two following fifty vessels came 
into the Delaware Piver, bringing several thousand 
emigrants ; the most of them from Great Britain, and 
some from Germany. Nearly all of them were pro- 
fessors with Friends, and many substantial, consistent 
members, who came under a sense of religious duty, 
and made the practice of the religion they had em- 
braced the primary object of life. Some had the 
benefit of a liberal education, while the great body, 
farmers, mechanics, or tradesmen, had acquired but 
the rudiments of English school-learning. Many pos- 
sessed considerable property, paying cash for the land 
they took up ; and generally the others soon found 
means to make themselves independent. 

Those who came first, as was to be expected, had to 
encounter the difficulties and privations usually attend- 
ing pioneers in an uncultivated forest. Some, who 
brought the frames of small houses with them, were 
not long in obtaining a comfortable shelter ; but very 



44 WILLIAM PENN. 

many were obliged to content themselves with hastily 
constructed shanties, under the overarching branches 
of trees; while some dug caves in the bank of the 
river, and made out to obtain in them some of the 
comforts of a home. This was before William Penn 
came out ; but Richard Townsend, who came in the 
same ship with him, thus speaks of his experience: 
" At our arrival we found it a wilderness ; the chief 
inhabitants w^ere Indians; there w^ere some Swedes, 
who received us in a friendly manner; aud although 
there was a great number of us, the good hand of 
Providence was seen in a particular manner, in that 
provisions w^ere found for us by the Swedes and 
Indians, at very reasonable rates; as well as brought 
from divers other parts, that were inhabited before. 
Our first concern was to keep up and maintain our 
religious worship, and in order thereto, we had several 
meetings in the houses of the inhabitants; and one 
boarded meeting-house was set up, where the city was 
to be (near the Delaware) ; and as we had nothing but 
love and good-will in our hearts one to another, we 
had very comfortable meetings from time to time, and, 
after our meeting was over, we assisted each other in 
building little houses for our shelter." 

The high motives that prompted them to exile 
themselves from tlieir native land, and the fervent 
religious concern to be engaged in promoting the spread 
of the Redeemer's kingdom, which warmed their hearts, 
enabled them to bear all they had to endure with cheer- 
fulness. One of them thus expresses himself: " Our 
business in this new land is not so much to build 
houses, and establish factories, and promote trade and 
manufactures, that may enrich ourselves (though all 



WILLIAM PENN. 45 

these things, in their due place, are not to be neglected), 
as to erect temples of holiness and righteousness, which 
God may delight in ; to lay such lasting frames and 
foundations of temperance and virtue as may support 
the future superstructures of our happiness, both in 
this and the other world." 

In taking possession, and in tlie settlement of Penn- 
sylvania, it had been a subject of much solicitude and 
care with William Penn, that the whole conduct of 
the settlers, in their intercourse with the aborigines, 
should be so marked with kindness, and with consider- 
ation for their rights and national customs, as to secure 
their good-will, and influence them to live in peace and 
harmony with the new-comers upon their soil. Before 
coming over himself he had appointed three Commis- 
sioners to see to the necessary arrangements for the 
reception and settlement of the colonists, to lay out 
the site for a town, and to treat with the Indians. By 
these he sent an address to the latter, in which he tells 
them it is his desire to enjoy the country over which 
he had been made Governor, " with their love and 
consent, that we may always live together as neigh- 
bors and friends ; " and as he had heard that in some 
places impositions had been practised upon them which 
had produced animosity and revenge, it was his sincere 
desire, and should be his practice, and the practice of 
those he should send, to treat with them justly for 
their lands, and to make and preserve a firm treaty of 
peace. 

When, after his arrival on the shores of the Dela- 
ware, he had met the Colonial Assembly elected by the 
inhabitants, and the necessary laws were enacted, and 
had transacted some other business immediately pres- 



46 WILLIAM PEN N. 

sing upon him, he gave the necessary attention to 
select the location of the future city, to which he gave 
the name of Philadelphia. Afterwards he went on to 
New York, and visited Friends there and on Long 
Island and in New Jersey. On his return from this 
journey, he took the necessary measures to have the 
chiefs of the tribes of Indians occupying that portion 
of the Province which was likely to be soon required 
by the settlers, to meet him in council. The place of 
meeting was in Shackamaxon, a little north of the city, 
and on the Delaware River. There, under the wide- 
spread branches of a noble elm-tree, was held the 
treaty of friendship and perpetual peace, between the 
natives, the Governor, and the immigrant Friends, 
which has become world-renowned as the Great Indian 
Treaty. Made in good faith and honesty by both 
parties, this treaty was defaced by no oath, and re- 
mained unbroken so long as Friends held the reins of 
power in the government. Under its provisions, there 
sprung up a confiding intimacy between the red men 
and the white; and so long as the Christian policy 
inaugurated by William Penn and his brethren in 
religious profession was adhered to, there was no case 
of wrong or misunderstanding occurred, which was not 
speedily settled and removed by resort to the peaceable 
and just means provided for in its stipulations. 

Thus the benign and peaceable principles, of the 
gospel, as laid down by Christ and His Apostles, and 
adopted by Friends, were closely adhered to and fully 
tested in the settleuient of Pennsylvania ; and the ex- 
perience of seventy years of uninterrupted peace and 
prosperity, while the Province was under the control 
of Friends, conclusively proves how far they exceed all 



W I L 1. 1 A M P E N N . 47 

other rules and motives of conduct, however devised 
by the wisdom of man or enforced by military power. 
The enlightened and liberal policy of the settlers, 
together with the simplicity of manners and refinement 
evinced in their domestic and social economy and 
general intercourse, contributed to the powerful at- 
traction exerted by the Colony on all who were dis- 
posed to escape from the tyrannous exactions and 
almost continuous commotions agitating and embitter- 
ing civil society in Europe. 

The just and loving manner in which William Penn 
treated the Indians from the beo^innino^ of his inter- 
course v/ith them, and the peaceable principles not 
only professed, but continually acted on by the settlers, 
besides gaining the confidence of the tribe immediately 
surrounding them, spread their fame to others more 
distant; so that during the stay of the Proprietor, 
when on his first visit to his Province, he made trea- 
ties of friendship and amity with nearly twenty 
different tribes. Nor were the expenditures for the 
land purchased a mere nominal sum, palmed upon the 
ignorant natives, easily caught with showy goods, and 
unaccustomed to estimate things at their real value. 
From the accounts preserved of these bargains and 
sales, it appears that, during his lifetime, the Proprie- 
tor expended over twenty thousand pounds in the 
purchase of that portion of the soil which was ceded 
to him by the aborigines ; and yet they were not re- 
quired to abstain frojn hunting or fishing within its 
boundaries, and the laws were so framed as to give 
them the protection of citizens. 

The influx of settlers was unprecedented ; the forest 
began to be cleared, and dwellings were put up rapidly. 



48 WILLIAM PENN. 

The soil yielded abundantly, and no calamity occurred 
for years to check the rapid increase of inhabitants, or 
create doubts and dissatisfaction as to the course they 
had taken in removing from their native country. 
New meetings for worship were established, as the new- 
comers took up lands in the counties contiguous to the 
city; so that, in 1684, William Penn wrote, there were 
eighteen in all, and all were brought within the order 
of church government, as laid down in the discipline 
then adopted. 

Shortly after witnessing the prosperous beginning 
of his new colony, William Penn returned to England, 
and for a number of years continued to reside in or 
near London. He had provided for the affairs of the 
Province during his absence ; but such was his unceas- 
ing solicitude for the spiritual welfare of the Friends 
he was about leaving, that, after he had embarked, he 
addressed them a letter from the ship, in which he 
says : ^' Now you are come to a quiet land, provoke 
not the Lord to trouble it, and as liberty and authority 
are with you, and in your hands, let the government 
be upon His shoulders in all your spirits; that you 
may rule for Him, under whom the princes of this 
world will one day esteem it their honor to govern and 
serve in their places. I cannot but say, when these 
things come mightily upon my mind, as the apostle 
did of old, 'What manner of persons ought we to be in 
all holy conversation and godliness?^ 

"And thou, Philadelphia, the^ virgin settlement of 
this Province, named before thou wert born, what love, 
what care, what, service, and what travail has there 
been, to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such 
as would abuse and defile thee. 



WILLIAM PENN. 49 

"Oh that thou mayst be kept from the evil that 
would overwlielm thee; that, faitliful to the God of thy 
mercies, in the life of righteousness, thou mayst be 
preserved to the end. My soul prays to God for thee, 
that thou mayst stand in the day of trial, that thy 
children may be blessed of the Lord, and thy people 
saved by His power." 

He had been commended by his father, on his death- 
bed, to the good offices of the then Duke of York. 
The respect and kind feeling of the Duke for Wil- 
liam Penn appeared to have continued after he became 
King ; and a sense of gratitude and Christian interest, 
in measure, bound the man he had befriended to his 
royal benefactor. He was almost daily at Court, and 
as often his interest there was employed on behalf of 
those with whom he was united in religious fellowship, 
or of others who solicited his aid; which his kindness 
of heart prompted him not to refuse. His house in 
Kensington was daily thronged with persons who 
sought his mediation to promote their interests, or 
desired to engage him to present their j^etitions or 
addresses to the King. He received all with courtesy, 
and aided those he could with cheerfulness ; and no 
one ever charged him with making gain of his position 
or influence. Nevertheless, in this way, it is probable 
he appeared in cases where greater prudence would 
have restrained him from interfering. Certainly he 
made many bitter enemies, who hesitated not to [)ro- 
claim him to be a Jesuit, a hypocrite, and an enemy 
to the Protestant interest. Accustomed to calumny as 
a Friend, and conscious of his innocence, William 
Penn allowed these slanders to possess the public ear, 
until they came to be credited by many, who, without 
5 D 



60 W I L L I A lil P E N N . 

any particular prejudice against him, supposed that, 
like other emissaries of Rome, he was in league with 
the King in trying to subvert the religion and consti- 
tutional liberties of the nation. At length the Sec- 
retary for the Plantations, who knew Penn well, and 
was greatly grieved with the manner in which he was 
traduced, and fearful of the ultimate result of his per- 
sistently declining publicly to defend himself, addressed 
him by letter; reciting the charges industriously cir- 
culated against him, and earnestly requesting he would 
notice and refute them. To this letter William Penn 
replied, taking up each accusation separately, and 
showing their untruth and their absurdity. He did 
not hesitate to acknowledge the gratitude and kind 
feeling he entertained toward King James, and that on 
some occasions, when his opinion had been sought on 
matters affecting the nation, he had given it; but he 
declared that, on all such occasions, he had advocated 
liberty of conscience, and the best interest of Protestant 
England ; and he challenged any one to come forward 
and show to the contrary. Notwithstanding this ex- 
planation of his intimacy at Court, and his positive 
denial and refutation of the many false stories raised 
about him, the feeling produced by them was not 
entirely removed; and in the last month of 1688, as 
he was walking in Whitehall, he was suddenly sum- 
moned to appear before the Lords of the Council. 
Some of the Council, who were inimical to him, re- 
quired hira to give sureties for his appearance on the 
hrst day of the next term of Court. On his appear- 
ance there, his case was postponed until the next 
session ; when there appeared to be no accuser or ac- 



WILLIAM PENN. 51 

cusation against him, and he was declared clear in 
open Court.* 

In 1688 James II., finding himself deserted by the 
nobility, the gentry, and the army, fled to France, and 
William, Prince of Orange, who had come over with 
an army on the invitation of some of the leading 
statesmen of England, was proclaimed king. Not- 
withstanding the alienation of the kindly feelings of 
the people, by the impolitic course pursued by James, 
and their apparent determination to maintain William 
and Mary on the throne, the self-exiled monarcli re- 
solved to continue Avhatever effort he could make, with 
the assistance of his friend Louis XIV., to regain the 
crown of Great Britain. There were many, who had 
stood high in State and Church, who refused to take 
the oath of allegiance to the reigning royal pair. These 
were termed Non-jurors and Jacobites, and intrigues 
and covert conspiracies were, for a long time, rife 
among them. Naturally this gave rise to suspicion 
and distrust on the part of the party in power. From 
this cause William Penn was subjected to no little 
trouble; his intimacy with the former king affording 
ground to prejudice the minds of many against him. 
He had already been arrested and discharged, there 
being no specific charge brought against him. But 
some letters from James having been intercepted, 
among them was found one addressed to him. He 

*The aspersion of the character of William Penn, and tlie charges 
brought against his conduct while frequenting the Court of James 
II., by Macaulay in his History of England, have been fully inves- 
tigated and refuted by several authors, who have shown tlie serious 
mistakes of the historian, and the innocence of Penn of the oifences 
imputed to him. 



52 WILLIAM PENN. 

was again brought before the Privy Council, and some 
of tliose present saying the circumstances required 
sureties from him, he urgently requested to be allowed 
to appear before King William himself. Tliis was 
granted, and, after a conference of two hours, the king 
was prepared to acquit him of being implicated in any 
treasonable correspondence with James. Some of the 
Council, however, were not satisfied without bail being 
given to appear at Court. On coming before the 
Court, he was again discharged. While King William 
was conducting the campaign in Ireland, where James 
was at the head of an army, fighting for possession of 
that island, a conspiracy in favor of the latter was dis- 
covered, originating in Scotland. Queen Mary ordered 
the seizure of many supposed to be hostile to the gov- 
ernment, and among them William Penn was again 
included. How long he was detained does not appear, 
but, at the Michaelmas term of the Court (1690), he 
was once more cleared of any complicity with the 
opponents of the government. For many months he 
had been making preparations to revisit Pennsylvania, 
and on his discharge he hastened to have everything 
ready to embark ; but, before he could complete his 
arrangements, he was again brought into difficulty, 
more serious than at any time before, on account of his 
connection with the Court of King James. King 
William had crossed over to Holland, to be present at 
a Congress held at the Hague, and his al)sence em- 
boldened the disaffected to enter into another plot for 
restoring James, who was then at the Court of Louis 
XIV. Two of their number started to cross the 
Channel, and have an interview Avith their absent sov- 
ereign ; but the plot was discovered, and these emissa- 



WILLIAM PENN. 53 

ries, with their papers, seized. One of tliem was hung ; 
the other, in order to save his life, gave testimony 
against several of the nobility, and implicated William 
Penn in the conspiracy. A warrant for his arrest was 
issued, and, on his return from the funeral of George 
Fox, he narrowly escaped once more being made a 
prisoner. 

In what manner he was said to be connected with 
the conspiracy, or what was the specific charge brought 
against him, is nowhere clearly stated ; but as Lord 
Preston — one of the captured messengers — declared 
he was one of the plotters, and a man of the name 
of William Fuller swore to the correctness of Pres- 
ton's statement, the matter assumed a serious aspect. 
As the origin of the plot was believed to have been 
among the Catholics, the same misrepresentations of 
Penn being a Jesuit in disguise were again brought 
forward, and the passions of the people being much 
inflamed against the intriguing papists, it was thought 
a fair trial could not be obtained for him. Under 
these circumstances, some accounts represent that Wil- 
liam Penn voluntarily secluded himself where he could 
not be easily seen ; waiting until a time should arrive 
when he might have a fair opportunity to clear him- 
self; while others state that, having been examined 
before the Privy Council, he was ordered to remain a 
prisoner in his own house, under surveillance. The 
latter is the more probable, as he could hardly have 
supposed he could escape the search the government 
would make for him ; especially as he kept up inter- 
course with his friends. Thus, in the Third month of 
1691, he addressed an epistle to the Yearly Meeting 
in London, in order to remove any unfavorable impres- 
5* 



54 WILLIAM PENN. 

sion that might have been made in the minds of his 
brethren by his forced seclusion. In this he says : 
" My privacy is not because men have sworn truly, 
but falsely, against me ; for wicked men have laid in 
wait for me, and false witnesses have laid to my charge 
things that I knew not ; who have never sought my- 
self, but the good of all, through great exercises ; and 
have done some good, and would have done more, and 
hurt to no man ; but always desired that truth and 
righteousness, mercy and peace, might take place 
among us/' 

During his retirement he employed his pen dili- 
gently, producing several works of much value. The 
refusal of Friends in Pennsylvania to contribute money 
for the erection of forts or other military purposes, had 
given great offence to the home government, and the 
enemies of Penn took advantage of this, and of the 
position he was now in, with charges of treason hang- 
ing over him, to obtain an order from the King and 
Council, in the early part of 1692, to annex the gov- 
ernment of Pennsylvania to that of New York, then 
presided over by Colonel Fletcher. Penn remained 
shut out from the world, and deprived of opportunity 
to serve the cause of truth and righteousness, and his 
brethren of the same faith, except by his pen, for more 
than two years; his character stained in the estimation 
of some, and his valuable services forgotten by many 
others, who, perhaps, thought he had indeed fallen to 
rise no more. But there were men of eminence who 
had never believed William Penn guilty of the crime 
laid to his charge, and were awaiting the right oppor- 
tunity to have justice done to his position and charac- 
ter. Among these was the celebrated John I^ocke, 



WILLIAM PENN. 55 

who esteemed him, not only as a man of exalted virtue 
and great literary attainment, but as a personal friend. 
He applied to King William for a pardon ; but Wil- 
liam Penn was too conscious of innocence, and too fully 
persuaded that in due time his innocence would be 
made manifest to the world, to be willing to accept of 
any release that would imply he had been guilty. In 
the meantime. Lord Preston, who had made the charge 
against him, had fled the country, and Fuller, his wit- 
ness, having been detected in perjury, was, by order 
of Parliament, tried as an impostor, in the Court of 
the King's Bench, found guilty, and sentenced to stand 
in the pillory. Lords Ranelagh, Rochester, and Sid- 
ney now waited on the King, and, stating that the 
name of William Penn had never been found in any 
of the letters or papers connected with the conspiracy, 
and that the charge against him rested solely on the 
accusation of two men who were known to be unworthy 
of belief, urged upon him the injustice and hardship 
of his case. The King appears to have heard them 
patiently, and replied that William Penn was an old 
acquaintance of his; that he had nothing to allege 
against him, and that he might follow his business as 
freely as ever. Afterwards the King gave an order 
to the principal Secretary of State for his freedom ; 
which was communicated to him in the presence of the 
Marquis of Winchester. He, however, sought and 
obtained a hearing before the Privy Council; and, 
after a full examination of the charges, he was honora- 
bly acquitted. The cloud that had long obscured his 
standing and services was now dispelled, and he re- 
turned to his family and friends, to resume the position 
he had before attained in the church, and in civil 



56 WILLIAM PENN. 

society. His wife survived his release but little more 
than two months. 

In 1696 William Penn was married to Hannah, the 
daughter of Thomas Callowhill, of Bristol, — a sober, 
religious woman, who survived him several years. 
Soon after this event he sustained an afflictive bereave- 
ment in the death of his eldest son, Springett Penn, in 
the twenty-first year of his age. He was a pious and 
amiable young man, of whom, in a touching testimony 
to his worth, William Penn says, " I lost all that any 
father can lose in a child.'' 

He had been absent from his colony for many years, 
though longing to return there, and oversee the work- 
ing of the government he had instituted, and the 
growth of the prosperous colony he had been a princi- 
pal means of planting on the shores of the Delaware. 

But the various troubles in which he had been involved 

f 

and the great loss of pecuniary means that had resulted 
from his outlay for the Province, and the dishonesty 
of his agent in Ireland, had so crippled and embarrassed 
him, that he had been unable to carry out his strong 
desire to cross the Atlantic, and spend the remainder 
of life amid the Friends and scenes he j^ictured emi- 
nently propitious to secure comfort and peace. But in 
1699, having settled his affairs in England and Ire- 
land, so as not to require his personal oversight, in the 
Seventh month he embarked with his wife and family 
for Philadelphia, expecting to end his days in the 
Province. The voyage, providentially, was a long one^ 
occupying three months ; by which delay on the ocean 
they did not arrive in the city until after the malig- 
nant fever, of which so many had died, had passed 
away. 



WILLIAM PENN". 57 

William Penii brought with him certificates from 
three meetings of Friends in England : one from "The 
Second-day's Meeting of Ministering Friends'' in Lon- 
don ; one from the ^' Men's Meeting of Friends'' in 
Bristol, where he had resided for some years, and 
another from " A Monthly Meeting held at Horsham;" 
all expressing their full unity with and love for him 
as a member and minister. The reception of these 
certificates is recorded on the minutes of the Monthly 
Meeting of Friends, of Philadelphia. 

The arriv^al of the Proprietor, after an absence of 
fifteen years, was hailed with joy by the people gener- 
ally, and doubtless he supposed that he could now pass 
his days in usefulness and tranquillity. But William 
Penn soon found that troubles beset him on every 
hand, and that his wise counsels and cherished plans 
of improvement were thwarted and opposed by a fac- 
tion bent upon promoting their own selfish schemes 
and interests. 

A circumstance now occurred which separated him 
from his American possessions forever. A bill had 
been introduced into Parliament for changing the 
colonial into^ regal government. This measure, if 
adopted, would take the control of the colony out of 
his hands, and substitute military rule for the mild and 
pacific government he had established. From a sense 
of duty, although very reluctantly, he yielded to the 
request of his friends in England, that he would im- 
mediately return thither. 

The news of his intended departure was received by 
the inhabitants with feelings of sincere regret. Perhaps 
none felt it more deeply than the aborigines. On this 
occasion, a number of them waited upon him at his 
residence at Pennsbury. The interview was conducted 



58 WILLIAM PENN. 

with great gravity. One of the chiefs, in the course 
of his remarks, said ^' that they never first broke their 
covenants with any people;" striking his hand upon 
his head, he said ^ithey did not make them there, but" 
— placing it upon his breast — " they made them thereJ^ 

William Penn sailed for England in the Eighth 
month, 1701, havino; been in the Province about two 
years. On the eve of his departure he presented 
Philadelphia with a charter, constituting it a city. 

The bill to chano-e the form of the colonial o;overn- 
ment was never passed into a law, but other engage- 
ments prevented his return to Pennsylvania. In 1705, 
in a brief but forcible epistle to Friends, he exhorts 
them to hold all their meetings in that which set them 
up, the heavenly power of God. In 1 706 he removed 
with his family to Brentford, about eight miles from 
London. In 1709 he went forth on a gospel mission 
through the western parts of England, which was his 
last journey of this kind. In 1710 he removed to 
Rushcomb, in Buckinghamshire, where he continued 
to reside until his death. In 1712 he had three 
attacks of apoplexy. By these his mental powers were 
so weakened that he was rendered incapable of trans- 
acting business. In this situation he remained for 
several years, without much bodily suffering, and 
appeared to enjoy great quietness and sweetness of 
mind. In the latter part of 1714 he was visited by 
Thomas Story, who says of him, "that he had a clear 
sense of truth, was plain, by some very clear sentences 
he spoke in the life and power of Truth, in an evening 
meeting we had there; wherein we were greatly com- 
forted, so that I am ready to think this was a sort of 
sequestration of him from all the concerns of this life, 
which so much oppressed him, not in judgement but 



WILLIAM PENN. 69 

in mercy, that he might not be oppressed tliereby to 
tlie end." 

When visited by two of his friends, in 1716, he still 
expressed himself sensibly, and at parting thus ad- 
dressed them : " My love is with you, the Lord pre- 
serve you, and remember me in the everlasting 
covenant." 

He continued gradually to grow weaker until the 
thirtieth of the Fifth month, 1718, when his Divine 
INIaster was pleased to summon him from the tribula- 
tions of time to the eternal rewards of the righteous. 

Thus peacefully passed away one of the most useful 
men of the age in which he lived : indeed, history 
makes us acquainted with few so faithfully and fear- 
lessly devoted to the cause of justi(;e, and to the in- 
crease of righteousness in the earth. In early life he 
felt the tendering visitations of the Holy Spirit, and 
as he submitted thereto, was led in paths of great cir- 
cumspection and non-conformity to the world, and 
soon became an object of scorn, reproach, and even 
bitter persecution. But none of these things moved 
him ; neither did he count his life dear, being mainly 
desirous that he might bear a faithful testimony to the 
truth whilst on earth, and finish his course with joy. 
• Early called to the ^^ ministry of reconciliation," and 
wisely instructed in the school of Christ, he was en- 
abled, for the good of others, to bring forth out of the 
heavenly treasury things new and old. 

As an author, his many publications are characterized 
by the forcible manner in which they set forth the 
spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, and the necessity 
of obedience to the teachings of the Holy Sj)irit. His 
views of morality and civil government were the fruit 
of Christian principle, and adapted to all times and 



60 WILLIAM PENN. 

all conditions of men. He shows that oaths, whether 
judicial or profane, are contrary to the doctrine of 
Christ and His Apostles, and the practice of tlie 
primitive Christians, and, in their direct tendency and 
effects, injurious to morality. He establishes con- 
clusively, that liberty, civil and religious, is the right 
of all, so far as its exercise does not infringe the right? 
of others ; and he was consequently opposed to all per- 
secution to enforce conformity in religious opinion. 
In founding his colony of Pennsylvania, he was influ- 
enced by the spirit of the gospel, and a desire that its 
government might be supported without the violation 
of any Christian precept. His policy grew out of that 
religion which breathes '^ Glory to God in the highest, 
peace on earth, good-will to men;'' and the aboriginal 
inhabitants, by others deemed treacherous and cruel, 
became the kind friends and faithful allies of his 
colonists. The pacific principles of the gospel were 
found in their operation more effectual than munitions 
of war, to preserve the State in peace and prosperity. 
Our narrow limits are insufficient to do justice to 
the character of William Penn, in setting forth his 
uprightness, his firmness, his zeal, his diligence, his 
love of the truth. Whether we consider him as a 
religious writer, a wise and Christian legislator, or as 
a faithful and devoted minister of the gospel, we must 
regard him as a benefactor to mankind. Of such the 
everlasting memorial is sure : " They that be wise shall 
shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that 
turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and 



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